| 1 | Name: | Bernard Romans | |
| Year Elected: | 1774 | ||
| Residency: | Resident | ||
| Living? : | Deceased | ||
| Birth Date: | 1720 | ||
| Death Date: | 1784 | ||
Bernard Romans (c. 1720–c. 1784) was a cartographer, naturalist, army officer, and a member of the American Philosophical Society, elected in 1774. He was born in the Netherlands, and moved to England to study botany, mathematics, and engineering. Around 1757 the British government sent him to America as a junior surveyor. By 1768 he was Principal Deputy Surveyor of the Southern District of British North America. During this time, he produced maps detailing hitherto unrecorded Floridian waterways and what is perhaps the first chart of the Florida coastline. He relocated to New York in 1773 to promote his future publication, A Concise Natural History of East and West Florida. While in the city, the Marine Society elected him as a member and he made contributions to the Royal American Magazine. In 1775 he published the only volume of A Concise Natural History before setting off to build fortifications on the Hudson river for the war effort. His feud with the crown over his pension fueled his joining the revolutionary cause. He resigned from duty shortly thereafter over a dispute regarding whether he was actually a colonel (he insisted he was). The next year he joined the Pennsylvania Artillery and then served under General Horatio Gates. He resigned again in 1788, but not before being court-martialed but ultimately acquitted of some charges regarding his involvement in his men’s misconduct. He intended to return to battle two years later, departing for Charleston before being captured at sea by the British. It is disputed where he was held for the remainder of the war, but in 1784 he supposedly set sail for Philadelphia with a large sum of money and then vanished. It is thought someone robbed, murdered, and threw him overboard. (ANB, DNB) | |||